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2015: Year of the Spy movie

When thinking of the biggest films of this year the average moviegoer will probably cite “The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron”, “Mad Max: Fury Road”, “The Martian”, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, or “Pitch Perfect 2”, maybe even “Inside Out”. Rarely however will somebody name off one of the many Spy films that are out, or have yet to come out. Which is a surprising notion as there are a lot fo spy oriented films when you take the time to look.

Kingsmen: The Secret Service

This movie by Matthew Vaughn arrived, seemingly, out of thin air. Hugely stylistic in nature this spy movie, adapted from the comic “The Sercret Service”, is hell bent on delivering unique action with sensible modesty in this very gentlemenly of motion pictures. The story follows the recruitment of a young and promising, if a little bit unrefined, street kid in London by the name of Gary “Eggsy” Unwin into the prim and proper spy organization known as, The Kingsmen. With a proper mentor in Colin Firth’s master spy character the young Eggsy is placed into the Kingsmen’s highly competetive selection process. All the while Samuel L. Jackson’s evil character moves world threatning pawns into play with a character that admittedly could have been borderline too over the top, but he ended up leveling out nicely in the performance. This was quite the unexpected box office hit and a sequel is already in delevopment. Check this one out if you have the chance, it was better than expected.

Spy

This film, out of all the options listed here, is the standout in terms of genre. This is a fun and self aware comedy that lives in a Spy’s world. Jason Statham and Melissa McCarthy work in tandem in Director Paul Feig’s gutbuster of an action comedy. In the flick McCarthy stars as Susan Cooper, a frumpy CIA analyst with surprisingly good combat skills that steps up when fellow agent, Jude Law, gets into trouble. She then teams with Statham’s agent Rick Ford to avenge her comrade, and be empathetically exuberant while doing so. Sharp, electric, and downright fun, this might be the best comedy to come out of the summer. If you want to have the pace of an action film with a good hearty side of laughter, go see this one!

Mission: Impossible Rogue nation

This summer also saw the return of Ethan Hunt, the legendary IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent with a penchant for getting in over his head, and always coming out on top. For a series five films deep Mission Impossible has had to evolve over the years in its revolving door of impressive creative teams and this film does no less. Reuniting Tom Cruise with Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Ving Rhames in an ultimately solid and satisfying sequel. This time the IMF is disbanded right from the gate by Alec Baldwin’s CIA director who crushes and absorbs the agency in the film’s beginning. The team continues to track a new deadly organization that has been organizing strategic terrorist attacks in order to change world events and eventually wipe out the IMF in entirety, The Syndicate. Cruise ends up teaming with a double, or possibly triple, agent in the form of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa to prove the existence of the shadowy and elusive organization. Rhames, Renner, and Pegg give the film a nicely balanced comedic routine while Ferguson herself injects a strong female character into the film without just being there for Cruise’s character to prove his own masculinity to the audience. Speaking of Cruise, this is another example of why the man is still making these movies, and still doing all of his own stunts, he’s excellent at it and has few competitors or contenders in this realm. The film overall has a slightly edgier feel than it’s predecessors and is tense throughout without forgetting to have some fun while they do it. While I must admit I’m not quite sure if the film exceeded the last franchise film, Ghost protocol, in quality, it is however a valiant and entertaining effort that should not be avoided because of this. Writer, Director Christopher McQuarrie excels in his take on the franchise and proves his worth onscreen once again, especially after penning last year’s surprise Sci-Fi wonder “Edge of Tomorrow” or “Live. Die. Repeat.” by the same name.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Guy Ritchie’s charming spy movie takes place in the early 1960’s at the height of the Cold War. The film pairs Henry Cavill as Napoleon Solo, a slick and suave American CIA agent, with Armie Hammer’s Illya Kuryakin, the deadliest KGB agent. As far as adaptions of television shows goes, this movies excels in giving what the original intent promised, an almost psueo spy vs spy feel that forces adversaries to cooperate in flashy and masterful style. The story here centers on the bitter rivals working together despite strong aversions to one another for the ultimate good of mankind, to stop former Nazi’s from getting the components to build a nuclear weapon. Here is a case where the argument of style over substance is less negligible than in other films as Guy Ritchie’s unique flair is often what keeps the film aflot over a structurally sound, but expected plotline. That’s not to say the film isn’t a hell of a ride mind you, just that it won’t be blowing anyone’s mind with plot twists anytime soon. This movie is more concerned with it’s set pieces and performances from the engaging leads as well, and everybody making or starring in the piece knows this, which is probably why it works as well as it does. A solid, if slightly underwhelming, film that I still strongly suggest people go and see!

Bridge of Spies

Even Steven Spielberg is going to be throwing his hat into the spy genre ring this year. Another period piece set in the early 1960’s, “Bridge of Spies” looks to be wandering close to Oscar territory again for Mr. Spielberg. I wouldn’t be surprised, when the legendary director fires on all cylinders he ascends to that special zietgeist of “Movie Magic”, and if the trailers are anything to indicate it looks as though he has done it again. Tom Hanks stars as an the American attorney tasked with negotiating the release of a U-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down over Russia at the height of the Cold War. With the Coen brothers writing the script and a knockout cast surrounding Hanks, this film is sure to stand out and engage people. I for one will be seeing this flick as soon as possible.

007 Spectre

After the massive success of “Skyfall” Daniel Craig has cemented his James Bond performance in the anals of cinema history. This follow up is hopefully more “Casino Royale” than “Quantum of Solice” though. With Sam Mendes returning to helm the sequal and new villain (most likely) in the form of Christoph Waltz please-be-Blofeld-please-be-Blofeld-please-be-Blofeld.. I feel more than secure with the franchise in these hands. Not much is known about the plot at this point and much like JJ Abrams, I am okay with this. Secrecy has its place in moviemaking and I don’t necessarily want a trailer pointing out every plot point for me before seeing the film. I’m looking at you “Terminator: Genisys”. With all the talent behind this one after the brilliant “Skyfall” in particular, who needs to know any more than that to be excited?

B.O.O. Bureau of Otherworldly Operations

This last entry I hadn’t even heard of until looking up any spy themed movies I might have missed but it looks like a fun little animated movie. The film stars the voices of Rashida Jones, Bill Murray, Matt Bomer and Melissa McCarthy and was slated to come out this summer but was pushed back for unknown reasons. The film is about fresh faced agents at the Bureau of Otherworldly Operations uncovering a plot to destroy the organization itself. So in all likelihood this seems like a fun little adventure coming out of Dreamworks and hey, it’ll be the second time Melissa McCarthy has been in a spy oriented movie this year! So there’s that. I feel like this could have a “Monsters Inc” feel to it, hopefully the final cut lives up to the potential of this premise.

So there you have it people, a bunch of very different and unique Spy films to sate your need for supreme secrecy, and espionage adventure! If you haven’t seen any of these flicks, besides the one that have not come out yet I highly recommend them all, each has their own rightful merits upon which they all stand. Maybe next year the popular genre will be Ninjas, or Ninja Musicals, that’d be new. Until next time!